


Don't Let Go

by dearevanheatherton



Series: A Little Unsteady [3]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: 9/11, Angst, Don't worry, Family, Gen, Ian and Mickey don't die, M/M, read notes if you want info on 9/11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 07:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8153710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearevanheatherton/pseuds/dearevanheatherton
Summary: When those towers went up in flames, Ian Gallagher was there. He ran through the flames and the smoke and the ruins, but none of that really mattered to him. What mattered was that he never let go of his family. He couldn't let what happened to her happen to them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So. This is late. Mainly because my computer sucks.  
> Really. It's been internet problems and then updating problems then more internet problem.
> 
> Sorry if this fic sucks. I didn't have anyone beta it. Nor did I scan it over. Any and all mistakes are mine. BECAUSE MY COMPUTER IS A FUCK UP.
> 
> Background info on 9/11: Second plane crashed at 9:03 A.M. I believe the impact zone was 74 to 85. Fourteen from those floors made it out alive and only 2 or 3 from the floors above. The second tower crumpled at 9:59 A.M.
> 
> Read at your own risk.
> 
> Based on Unsteady by X Ambassadors.

Ian walked into his workplace, holding his daughter Natalia’s hand. It was Yevgeny’s first day of kindergarten at new school, as well as Mickey’s first day at work, and neither of them could find anyone to watch their three year old daughter, so to work with Ian she went. He walked up to the elevator, and his daughter’s grin got wide.

“Daddy, daddy, can I push the button, please?” Her words jumbled together, and Ian chuckled at her eagerness.

“Of course, baby girl. You need me to lift you up?” Ian smiled at the small, redheaded girl who looked so much like him.

“No, Daddy! I’m a big girl. I can do it.” With that she reached upwards, but as she did that, she faltered.

“What’s wrong, baby girl?”

“... I don’t know which button to press,” Natalia replied sheepishly. Ian smiled lightly at his little girl.

“84. You know which one that is?”

“Of course I do. I’m not stupid.” With that, she pressed the button, and they headed towards the 84th floor.

 

 

Natalia was in the bathroom, complaining of a stomach ache, when Ian heard the ear-bursting noise from the building beside him. He looked back, startled, and watched in horror as he saw a plane sticking out of the North Tower, smoke and fire drifting out of the building. A fucking plane.

“What the fucking hell?” Ian heard the guy beside him, Paul, he recalled distantly, say in shock.

After a few minutes of chaos in the office, Ian could hear the faint crackle of the PA system. He could vaguely hear a suggestion to get out of the building, and Ian was about to do just that when he realised that, no, he couldn’t leave without his daughter, who was still in the restroom.

Waiting for her, he looked at the small tv where most people were gathering, the news stations already doing stories on the plane crash.

He looked down at his watch, anxiously waiting for his daughter. How long had she been in there? At least fifteen minutes, as it was already 9:00. 

He focused his eyes back on the screen for two more minutes, still waiting for his girl so they could get out and go home to Mickey, when he noticed the plane swerving around the first tower, and with a sense of horror, realised it was coming to them.

He yelled as smashing glass and smoke filled the room. He ran blindly for the bathroom, deciding that no, his daughter needed to get out now. He reached the bathroom and stomped in, shouting for his daughter to hurry, come on. She ran out of the stall she was in, tears already starting to stream down her face, the smoke flooding the bathroom becoming too much.

“Daddy, what’s happening? I’m scared!” Ian felt his heart break as he looked at her. She was too young for this, to small.

“It’s okay baby, it’s all gonna be okay.” He tried, but he couldn’t help thinking that he was lying to the both of them.

With that, he picked her up and covered her mouth so that the smoke couldn’t get her. He slammed open the door, walking out, and he felt sickened by the sight he saw. He could vaguely see people jumping out of the building, and he was confused at first, until he saw it.

The fire was spreading across the room, and as soon as he saw that, he rushed towards the only stairwell he could see, Stairwell A, and started running down the stairs. He was not going to let his baby die, he wasn’t going to leave Mickey and Yevgeny alone.

As he was rushing down the stairs, slamming into people as he went down, he noticed the weight in his arms getting more limp, and he looked down in horror.

In Ian’s haste to cover her mouth, he had completely foregone her nose, and he watched with growing dread as her breaths got more and more sluggish. He moved his hand to where it was covering both her nose and mouth, but in the back of his mind, he knew it was too late. Before, when he was an EMT, he saw just how quickly a person could die from too much smoke inhalation.

He tried to shove people out of the way, but it was to no avail. In the back of his mind, he knew that although everyone was frantically trying to get out of the building, they were all moving as slow as shit because of that very reason. They were all crammed against each other, and Ian recognized only a few, maybe 14, from the floors surrounding him. The floors where the plane it, he realised with sinking horror. 

He continued down the stairs, waiting impatiently for the people in front of him to move faster. He looked down at his watch, curious as to how long it had been since the plane crashed into the building.

9:39 A.M, the clock read. Ian stared at it, shocked. It had already been over thirty minutes. He nervously twitched, still holding the little girl in his arms tightly when he felt her breaths become more laborred. No, God, no, don’t do this, please. I know I don’t do this much, the whole praying or asking for help thing, but please, don’t let us die. Let us get out of this alive, we can’t leave them. We can’t leave Mickey alone… He looked upwards, as if begging God to let at least one of them out alive. Ian knew that only one would be getting out because that’s how his luck went. 

He looked to his side, seeing a plaque on the wall that read Floor 15. They had already gone down 69 floors? Shit, he really had been lost in his thoughts. He looked down at Natalia, her bright red hair still gleaming, even though it was covered in soot.

“Daddy?” Ian blinked back tears, his heart pounding against his chest, and Fuck, why does it hurt so much?

“Y-yes, baby?” He choked out, still hustling down the stairs.

“Is Papa gonna be okay? After I die?” That nearly stopped Ian in his tracks.

“What are you talking about? You’re not going to die,” he said shakily. He looked at the plaque on the wall. 5 more floors to go.

“Don’t be stupid, Daddy.” Her words started to slur together. “Mama says not to be stupid.”

 

Those had been his daughter’s last words.

 

Ian was tempted to just stop right there. He had literally just had his child die in his arms, had seen and heard her take her last breath. But he didn’t stop because in the back of his mind, there was a little voice saying What’ll Mickey do when he finds out that two of the people he loves most are dead? So he keeps going.

He runs out of the doors of the tower, and he looks up in horror when he sees it crumbling down. He runs even farther, so he can get away.

 

He saw so many people die that day. He saw people burn, he saw people jump, and he saw people be crushed by jumpers and the buildings alike. He forced the images out of his mind each time, and, since they’d shut down the subway, walked the 20 miles home with his dead daughter still in his arms. He brought back all the memories of ROTC training and start running when he got to the tenth mile.

He didn’t stop until he was standing in front of his door, and when he does stop, he crumpled down to his knees because God, what will Mickey think? But Ian didn’t even have to knock on the door before Mickey yanked it open, with Yevgeny hiding behind his legs, and crumpled down to his knees right beside Ian. 

Instead of saying something about the dead girl in his arms, Mickey just wrapped his arms around Ian and held him, rocked him back and forth, and eventually Ian realises they’d made it into the apartment and that he was lying on his bed.

He started thinking about what would happen with their little family with one daughter gone. He didn't know what would happen, but one thing was for sure.  
He would never let go of this family.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comment.
> 
> Sorry, my computer's about to shut down.


End file.
